What credit score do you need to get the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card?

For travel enthusiasts, the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is a great choice if you’re looking to earn rewards on flights and hotel stays. It’s one of the best travel rewards credit cards on the market, offering lots of opportunities to earn and redeem Capital One miles, as well as a generous welcome bonus of 75,000 miles after new cardholders spend at least $4,000 within the first three months of account opening.

For a modest $95 annual fee, the card also comes with useful travel benefits such as a $100 statement credit to cover TSA PreCheck® or Global Entry membership and two complimentary entries per year to Capital One Lounges or Plaza Premium partner lounges. It also provides other perks such as extended warranty and purchase protection, car rental collision damage insurance and roadside assistance, trip cancellation and interruption insurance, 24/7 travel assistance, and access to the Capital One Travel portal and Capital One Experiences program. Benefits only available to accounts approved for the Visa Signature card. Terms apply.

When it comes to redeeming rewards, you can use your miles to book flights, hotels, rental cars and other travel activities through Capital One travel or transfer them to any of Capital One’s airline or hotel partners. Capital One miles can also be used as statement credits to cover past travel purchases, and while not as lucrative, be redeemed for cash back or gift cards.

Remember that in order to qualify for this card, you’ll need to make sure you have a decent credit score. Below, Select takes a look at the kind of credit score you’ll need to become a Capital One Venture Rewards cardholder.

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is one of several travel rewards credit cards offered by the issuer. For this particular card, the application page says you’ll need to have an excellent credit score — according to Capital One, that means applicants must meet the following requirements:

• You have never declared bankruptcy or defaulted on a loan
• You have not been 60 days late on any credit card, medical bill, or loan within the last year 
• You have maintained a loan or credit card with with a credit limit above $5,000 for at least three years

If you’re wondering what specific credit score you’ll need to qualify for this card, Capital One won’t officially disclose that information. Additional reporting by personal finance sites such as The Points Guy and NerdWallet suggests, however, that applicants may still qualify with a good or very good credit score. Since FICO counts scores between 670 and 739 as being good credit scores, this likely means applicants will need to have a credit score of at least 670 to qualify.

FICO Score ranges:

• Very poor: 300 to 579
• Fair: 580 to 669
• Good: 670 to 739
• Very good: 740 to 799
• Excellent: 800 to 850

Of course, that doesn’t mean all applicants with a score above 670 will qualify or that those with a score below it will be rejected, just that in general, this is the score you’ll want to aim for to be considered eligible. If you’re not sure where you stand, Capital One does offer consumers a pre-qualification tool, so you can see which Capital One credit cards you might be eligible for.

Credit card issuers also look at other factors such as your annual income, the length of your credit history and how many credit cards you’ve applied for recently.

FICO score factors:

• Payment history (35%) — If you’ve made your previous payments on time
• Amounts owed (30%) — Your credit utilization ratio, or the ratio of the amount of credit you’re using to the amount that’s been extended and owed on your accounts
• Length of credit history (15%) — The amount of time you’ve had credit
• New credit (10%) — How often you open new accounts
• Credit mix (10%) — Whether you have different types of credit, such as installment loans or revolving lines of credit

To help your chances, you should also limit the number of credit card applications you submit in recent months. While there’s nothing specific mentioned on Capital One’s website, a number of personal finance sites including Forbes Advisor have reported that applicants won’t be approved for more than one Capital Credit Card every six months.

Furthermore, Capital One limits the number of personal credit cards consumers can have open to two. In other words, if you already have two Capital One branded credit cards, you likely wont be able qualify for the Venture Rewards Credit Card regardless of how good your credit score is.

In case of rejection, cardholders can call Capital One’s customer service department and try to negotiate your case for approval, though you may not be successful. Mentioning important details such as extenuating circumstances that caused you to be late on your past payments or pointing to your previous loyalty to Capital One likely wouldn’t hurt.

To qualify for the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, you’ll likely need to have a good credit score of at least 670, although having a higher credit score would only improve your chances of approval.

Additional reporting by various personal finance blogs and websites also suggests that Capital One has strict rules regarding how many Capital One personal credit cards an individual can have — and how many credit card applications you’re allowed to submit within a six-month timeframe. 

Catch up on Select’s in-depth coverage of personal finance, tech and tools, wellness and more, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date.